NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, the first probe ever sent to Pluto, successfully flew by Jupiter early on 28 February. At 12:43AM it flew within 1.4 million miles of Jupiter for a gravity-assisted speed boost.
New Horizons, which blasted off from Cape Kennedy in January 2006, is the fastest spacecraft ever launched. It passed the Moon’s orbit a scant nine hours after reaching space (the Apollo missions took three days), and the 9,000 mile-per-hour boost Jupiter has given the probe has increased its speed to more than 52,000 miles per hour.
“We’re on our way to Pluto,” said Mission Operations Manager Alice Bowman. “The swingby was a success; the spacecraft is on course and performed just as we expected.” Its 3-billion mile voyage will have New Horizons rendezvousing with Pluto in July 2015.
While passing Jupiter, the probe is running an intense six-month long systems check that includes more than 700 scientific observations of Jupiter and its system. When New Horizons reaches Pluto, it won’t be able to slow down to hang around, but will have to gather all the data it can on the fly. After Pluto, the probe will have enough fuel to make several course corrections, which mission managers hope to be able to use to examine other Kuiper Belt Objects.
For regular updates on the New Horizons mission, see the New Horizons web site.